It seems to me that much of the fragmentation that the post discusses is just economic specialization, which we should encourage (see Adam Smith). I do think it is reasonable that one limits the 'fragmentation', i.e. that one puts negative feedback in the economic loop in the form of a progressive tax. Negative feedback is used everywhere in electronics and even sometimes by the Fed to control interest rates. Even so, many economists [1] throw up their hand and say macro economics is too tough and we just can't predict how it will work. This seems like nonsense to my engineer brain; I think that a sharply progressive tax with an accompanying universal basic income is the right way to encourage economic diversity.
[1] I get my impression of economists from EconTalk by Russ Roberts.
As an engineer, you should be familiar with chaotic systems, which produce vastly different trajectories based on small changes in initial conditions. Very simple mechanical systems[1] exhibit chaotic tendencies. Control of such systems is possible on the small scale, but large scale chaotic systems may become uncontrollable.
Now imagine an economy made of millions of people who all have different needs, desires, abilities, environments, intelligence, etc. How accurately can you predict how a single policy decision will shape the trajectory of such a collection of people? Now the State pushes thousands of policy changes per year into the system without ever really monitoring the response to a single change.
> many economists throw up their hand and say macro economics is too tough and we just can't predict how it will work
The smart ones do, but the mainstream Keynesian school have the hubris to think they can predict the responses of millions. Most Western leaders have been advised by Keynesian economists for much of the 20th century, and the decisions of those leaders have caused vast displacement, pain, and suffering in the form of economic turmoil and war.
Remember, the State is also an economic actor, and it derives its income by coercive force. Progressive taxes simply point a bigger gun at the heads of those who perform better in the economy.
I'm all for reducing the size and complexity of govt, including the frequency of policy changes. A progressive tax can be a small-govt solution.
> ... Progressive taxes simply point a bigger gun at the heads of those who perform better in the economy.
A progressive tax certainly takes more from those who have performed better in the past. I'm concerned about creating jobs and encouraging situations where people can succeed in the future. The people who will create the jobs of tomorrow are not the ones who created past jobs. It's small companies who create jobs, so don't tax them as much; it's the struggling entrepreneur who will create jobs, so don't tax them as much. Instead, tax those who have already succeeded and who are not creating as much relative economic output.
There are some bold claims here that you don't even make an attempt to back up with evidence.
On chaos, you seem to be arguing that a few select simple systems are chaotic, therefore a much larger system must also be chaotic. This doesn't make any sense, complexity != chaos. Think of something like an ant colony, millions of ants in an incredibly complex system, but the system as a whole tends toward very consistent behavior. Killing some of the ants or cutting off on supply of food makes no difference.
It's also incredibly vague to talk about this when there are billions or more inputs to a system like the US economy. Some variables might exhibit chaotic behavior, but that doesn't mean anything you do to the system has a completely unpredictable outcome.
> Now the State pushes thousands of policy changes per year into the system without ever really monitoring the response to a single change.
What? They monitor changes all the time. For instance, the white house is happy to tell you exactly how many more people have health insurance now thanks to obamacare. Many (maybe most?) of the policy changes are close to independent and effect only a small subset of people. And it is usually possible to statistically account for other factors that might be interfering with what you're trying to measure.
> have caused vast displacement, pain, and suffering in the form of economic turmoil and war.
Yet somehow we're living in the safest time in human history [1]
[1] I get my impression of economists from EconTalk by Russ Roberts.